Stock Market

The Stock Market in Grand Theft Auto V operates with the same goal as real life stock trading: Buy low and sell high in order to turn a profit. The value of stocks are affected by various things including story progress, in-game purchases and with some stocks, other players.

GTA Stock Market: Prime Directive

The single most important rule of the GTA 5 Stock Market is this: wait as long as possible to perform Franklin's Assassination Missions, and invest as heavily as possible with all three characters when you do so.

No tricks, no fuss. Just wait. These Missions are sure-fire, vast Stock Market shifts hard-coded into the Story Mode. The more money you have to invest, the more money you can make on these dramatic and guaranteed market swings. You can easily double your investment more than once over this way.

Do note that the first Assassination Mission is mandatory in order to progress in the story. Invest all you have from all three characters and then save the rest of the missions for after you finish the story.

The prices of LCN stocks are directly influenced by what the player does in single player Story Mode. During Franklin's series of Assassination Missions, murdering the head of one company will enhance the stock value of a rival. For example, killing corrupt jury members for the Redwood trial increases the value of rival Debonaire's stock.

How Story Missions Affect Stocks

Throughout the game's story, Lester will offer Franklin missions in which he'll have to assassinate a target. These targets have a huge role to play in the company's whose stocks are available to purchase, and their deaths will affect the value of their corresponding stock. Although Lester will often tell Franklin himself, this table clarifies which stock the player should invest in before or after killing their target.

These stocks will rise by a preset maximum percentage over the following 5-10 minutes, before swiftly dropping to less than half of that profit then slowly returning to normal. Keep a close eye & close/reopen the trading pages to stay on top of the price, as if you miss it then try to reload the maximum percentage will be greatly reduced - you'll be able to tell this has happened because it will remain at this capped value for far longer than expected, and it will be an even percentage (for example 25% after The Vice Assassination versus up to 50% pre-reload).

Stock Market Trends

Once all assassination missions are exhausted, making money on the stock market is still possible. This can be achieved by predicting trends. Graphs for individual stocks are provided during the purchase process. Before you purchase a stock, study the graph for any distinguishing repetition in patterns, as these can be quite easy to spot, especially for stocks that have a consistent up and down trough-patterned graph like pictured below.

Stocks like this are usually fairly easy to predict. Buy these types of stocks when near the bottom of the trough and try to sell them as close to the top of the trough as possible by visualizing the pattern of previous price movements on the graph. You can usually expect a return of 5-10% guaranteed by using this method. Be warned though, GTA stocks are short-term investments and are extremely volatile. For this reason you shouldn't place all of your money in any one stock, because some will do better than others and some will inevtiably go into a sharp decline. Despite the risks, all stocks will eventually at least resurface so you can break even and dump the stock if you are unhappy with its general preformance. Certain singleplayer stocks seem to perform better than others from console to console, try and find out what those good performers might be. Additionally, check out the market movers on the front page of your exchange to see general positive trends, but be warned purchasing any stocks that are well into their climb as they will shortly fall sharply.

If the graph for your stock appears linear between increases, plateaus, and declines (like the graph pictured below) there still will be a discernable pattern to watch for; however, predicting the trend will not be as easy. Using the numeric values when purchasing the stock for the low and high share price might be better for stocks that are volatile in a linear fashion. Buy stocks when the current price is near the recorded low and sell them when near the recorded high.

Preferred ROI And Time Required:

Once your Return On Investment (ROI) reaches a satisfactory level and appears as if it will not expand much longer, it is advised to avoid losing the gain already made and free up much needed capital that can be utilized for additional trades by selling the stock. Much like in the card game of Black Jack where the target is a value of 21 for your cards, going over could "bust" a large hole in the already available ROI if your stock starts on a sharp decline. Time is money. Since the goal of most users appears to be making a series of short-term trades in rapid succession to make the most money possible, after an acceptable ROI is achieved the stock should be sold so investment capital is freed for further short-term investments that (hopefully) should yield an even better ROI with the additional investment capital from the profits of the past trade. An acceptable ROI for LCN stocks should be around 10% and for BAWSAQ stocks 25-40%, depending on individual user preference and personal time constraints on game play time. Acceptable ROI can be achieved via BAWSAQ usually in 3-6 hours depending on user activity levels. For BAWSAQ the weekends are prime times for making large ROIs. Acceptable ROI for LCN can be achieved after sleeping for 5-10 minutes in 5 sleep cycle increments in quick succession, assuming the particular stock invested in will go up and is not actually in a downward price trend. These paramaters should be evaluated by the individual user and adjusted to their personal needs. One example that falls within these paramaters is a trade that was made within four hours of initial purchase netting an ROI of over 33% and a profit of over $6,000,000.

Personal Observations & Opinion On Trends (BAWSAQ):

It should be noted the BAWSAQ exchange marginally makes returns of 30% or higher on investment within 3-6 hours (not in-game hours) of first purchasing a stock on a significant upward trend. These returns tend to be two to ten times higher than those which are achievable on the LCN exchange in the same amount of time. In theory this is because online market participation is on the rise and has yet to reach its peak. If the laws of economics are considered in the algorithm that determines stock price, then stocks in upward trends ought to rise more rapidly and those in downward trends ought to fall more rapidly, in theory. This provides a unique opportunity to make millions in profit off trades before the market levels off and volatility becomes less of a factor. For every action there is definitely an equal and opposite reaction, however. The risk involved for online investments becomes equally as consequential as the potential gains. For users who understand entry level to intermmediate economics and closely follow their trades, I would recommend taking advantage of the current market volatility. It is my prediction this volatility will inevitably level off in one to three months as user activity declines (GTA V players start stacking their games on the book shelf as a relic of their achievements). Users who are really confused by the mechanics of the GTA V stock market and are just learning how to make trades should use the LCN exchange to avoid the volatility and risk that could cripple their investment capital unless they are not concerned with taking losses on their portfolio.

The prices of BAWSAQ stocks are affected by the Grand Theft Auto V online community. For example, Ammu-Nation originally was a wise investment, likely due to the sheer number of people buying weapons and ammo in game, however it's price has been in free fall since Friday 27th, likely due to a tail off in ammo and gun purchases and thereby causing many to offload stocks exacerbating the issue. HAL and PIS have been on the rise since about the same time, but have begun to slow a little (as of Monday 30th). These two stocks are likely on the rise because their value was so low during the previous week, which prompted many to invest heavily at low prices for maximum possible returns.

You may be able to get a small jump on the market by watching RockStar Games Social Club Site, the BAWSAQ market is available there and seems to be slightly ahead of the in-game market.

Social Club member conduct in single-player modes appears to have discernible effect on overall market performance.